Monday, May 7, 2007

This was taken last week at Post Point - I had several great formula sessions, all on the new 9.9. The last one (on Thursday) was even blessed with brilliant sunshine. The new 9.9 is feeling great - can't wait to get the 10.8 (any day now...). Went to the Gorge over the weekend, got some good sailing there despite early season flukiness in the conditions - winds at the Event Site were pretty up and down; on Friday, we were going back and forth between FW and slalom, but invariably the wind would die after being out on the small gear for just a bit.

Learned that my board handling on slalom gear seems to have improved over the winter (nothing like survival sailing to make you feel like the swell off the White Salmon bridge is a very nicely organized playground). Also learned that I got just a bit too comfy on my FW stuff, with my setup tending more towards control rather than pushing the edge for that extra bit of angle - not surprising if you're sailing in cold water, cold air, and don't have a tuning partner for a few months. Nothing like lining up with Bruce to keep you honest.

1 comment:

I know what you mean about sailing conservatively over the winter...now that it's warm enough in my area to sail without gloves, it's time to start throwing the rig around (I don't do so much as duck jibe when my hands are inside neoprene...everything feels imprecise and slow.) My first couple of gloveless sessions showed me that I needed to "take the gloves off" and push the envelope as you said!

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I race windsurfers, and have been passionate about windsurfing since I first started as a grom on a pond in Northern Germany in 1979. This blog is my way of sharing my stoke for the sport. I'm re-purposing my website for my IT Consulting business, so if you need some pragmatic systems solutions, be sure to stop by there. In the meantime, check out the posts, feel free to comment or send an email through the contact form, and be sure to visit my sponsors' websites.